People Trading Traditional Media News Sources For New Media

New research from Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that people are relentlessly moving from traditional media -including newspaper, radio & television – to Internet-based news sources.

In the last ten years, the percent of people getting their news from the Internet has tripled, while the radio and newspaper news audience has declined 14% and the television news audience has declined 9%:

While many people are taking advantage of Internet options to get their news, it also appears that many young people are increasingly distracted by other Internet content, and actually following the news less. According to Pew’s research, the percent of young people not following the news has jumped 9% in the last decade.

Key Findings:

Since 2006, the proportion of Americans who say they get news online at least three days a week has increased from 31% to 37%.

More people regularly get news online than regularly watch one of the nightly network news broadcasts (37% vs. 29%).

As the online news audience grows, the educational divide in online news use also is increasing. Currently, 44% of college graduates say they get news online every day, compared with just 11% of those with a high school education or less.

10% of the public regularly reads political and news blogs.

The proportion of young people getting no news on a typical day has increased substantially over the past decade. About a third of those younger than 25 (34%) say they get no news on a typical day, up from 25% in 1998.

Social networking sites are very popular with young people, but they have not become a major source of news. Just 10% of those with social networking profiles say they regularly get news from these sites.

15% of Americans say they have a smart phone, such as an iPhone or a Blackberry. More than a third of smart phone owners (37%) say they get news from these devices.

Believability ratings for major online news outlets – including news aggregators such as Google News and AOL News – are lower than for major print, cable and broadcast outlets.